Holy Communion

St. Paul’s Sunday School Helps Orphanage in Ghana

After traveling down a winding dirt road and passing through dense tropical forests, a clearing appears – a place where a group of 30 Sunday School kids in Fulton, Maryland, are making a world of difference to 105 orphans and nearly 300 schoolchildren more than 5,000 miles away in Ghana, Africa.

The place is the Baptist Orphanage and School Complex (BASCO) in Trotor, a small village near the city of Koforidua. It is a place of primitive living conditions on a nine-acre parcel of land about 70 miles inland from Accra, Ghana’s capital on the West African coast. BASCO was established by Pastor Victor Ofori-Amoah in 1999 with four children who were abandoned after their parents were killed in a road accident. Its growth and its connections to a Lutheran church in Howard County, Maryland, is a remarkable story of care, compassion and commitment by people who live nearly half a world apart but share a deep desire to help children in need.

The orphanage, which began as a few mud buildings, is an independent nondenominational, faith-based organization which welcomes children of all faiths. Its Christian practices undergird daily life by providing students with the kind of support and resiliency they need in the face of adversity – something very familiar to Pastor Victor, who was an orphan himself. BASCO is certified in Ghana as a non-profit, non-governmental organization, but it receives no direct support from the Ghanian government. The orphanage survives on small donations from Pastor Victor’s church and donations from outside sources, some as far away as St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Fulton.

Diane Winn is a scientist specializing in microbiology and a member of the St. Paul’s congregation. She, along with her late husband Dan, has worked in Ghana for many years to develop herbal medicines to combat malaria. During their time in Ghana, the Winn’s brought word to St. Paul’s about an orphanage that was in dire need of support. The children had no place for learning, so a primary-grade school building was under construction in 2000, but there was no money for a roof.

The Winn’s approached St. Paul’s to request $2,500 for the school roof, and the church council approved the request. Thus began a long and growing relationship with BASCO, including an adoption by Chad Kline, a former assistant pastor, and his wife Christine. They visited the Winn’s in Ghana and, when taken to the orphanage, they met and fell in love with a young girl. Today their adopted daughter is a high school student in Howard County.

After the first commitment by St. Paul’s to provide assistance to the orphanage, Debbie Marston, Sunday School superintendent/Office Administrator, decided to enlist the Youth Sunday School classes, grades 1-5, in a “let’s see what we can do” effort to help out with other needs. These efforts took on an entirely new dimension in 2007 when a tropical storm destroyed the school roof and heavily damaged other structures at the orphanage.

Thus far, the “Let’s see what we can do” activities – involving about 30 children along with their teachers and parents – have raised nearly $15,000 and collected many other non-cash donations to support the orphanage and some of the children individually. The Sunday School projects include:

·    Sponsoring a series of bake sales, two “Rainforest Dinners” with recipes from Ghana, Halloween carnivals, sock hops and other fundraising projects to complete the roof repairs and support other work at the orphanage.

·    Collecting donations of books, school supplies, flip-flop sandals, and other supplies to send to the school and orphanage.

·    Raising $6,750 to fund tuition for nine children at the orphanage to attend high schools near the orphanage.

·    Collecting nearly 50 board games to send as Christmas presents this year along with money so that the children can have a proper Christmas dinner.

The BASCO orphanage and school today has 105 orphans and 292 students attending its school. The orphanage consists of a girls and boys dormitories, four rooms for teachers quarters, girls and boys latrines, dining hall, auditorium, administrative office, incomplete boys shower, incomplete classrooms, and the beginnings of a computer lab. Four laptop computers, a digital camera and other equipment have also been donated by families of the Sunday School students at St. Paul’s.

For more information about this project, contact stpauls@comcast.com. Pictures of the Children and orphanage are on display in the St. Paul’s parish hall.